Are Female Executives More Risk-Averse than Male Executives?

Abstract

It is often argued that women are more risk averse than men. This paper provides additional evidence on this issue by examining the stock selling behavior of male and female executives in response to stock option awards. When corporate executives sell shares of their firm upon new stock option awards, it is an indication that they are attempting to reduce risk through diversification of their personal portfolio. More rigorous stock sales by female executives would indicate that they are more risk averse than their male counterparts. However, this paper finds that male executives are more risk averse by engaging in higher diversification-related stock sales than the female executives. It is also found that the stock sales by male executives approximate the optimal hedge ratio.